Turkish Airlines
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Turkish Airlines (Turkish Türk Hava Yolları) (THY) is an airline based in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the national airline of Turkey and operates a network of scheduled services to Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, North Africa, South Africa and the USA. Its main base is Ataturk International Airport (IST), Istanbul, with a hub at Esenboga International Airport (ESB), Ankara.
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History
The airline was established on May 20, 1933 as the State Airlines Administration and started operations in August 1933. It was founded in Ankara as Hava Yollari Devlet Isletmesi Idaresi and began operations with an Istanbul, Eskisehir, Ankara service. The name was changed to Devlet Hava Yollari (DHY) in June 1938. The first international flight was launched in 1947 to Athens, but it took another 40 years before the introduction of long-haul flights to the Far East and across the Atlantic. A major reorganisation resulted in the replacement of state company DHY with a mixed corporation, Turk Hava Yollari AO (THY) on 20 February 1956. The airline's shares were passed to the prime ministry public participation administration in 1990 and about 24.8% of the shares were sold to the public. The airline is owned by TC Privatisation Administration (75.2%) and private shareholders (24.8%). The airline has 10,956 employees. It also has a 50% holding in subsidiary airline SunExpress.
Services
Main article: Turkish Airlines destinations
Incidents and Accidents
On 3 March 1974, Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashed in France, killing all 346 passengers aboard. Before the Tenerife Airport Disaster, it was the worst aircraft disaster.
On March 28, 2003, an Airbus A310 of the airline, flying from Istanbul to Ankara, was hijacked during the flight, and diverted to Greece. The hijacker said he wanted to fly to Germany, alleging that his mother and sister were hostages there. At the Athens's Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, the aircraft was surrounded by Greek security forces and after 3 hours of negotiations the 20 year-old hijacker, Ozgur Gencarslan, finally gave up. It is said that Gencarslan was not affiliated with any terrorist organisation and was acting on his own.
Fleet
The Turkish Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (at May 2005):
- 1 Airbus A310-200
- 6 Airbus A310-300
- 9 Airbus A320-200 (further 19 on order)
- 2 Airbus A321-100
- 2 Airbus A321-200 (further 10 on order)
- 7 Airbus A340-300
- 3 BAe Avro RJ100ER
- 17 Boeing 737-400
- 26 Boeing 737-800 (further 15 on order)
The airline also has 5 Airbus A330-200 on order.
External links
- Turkish Airlines (http://www.turkishairlines.com/)
- Turkish Airlines Fleet Detail (http://www.planemad.net/Airline/TR/Turkish_Airlines_(TK_THY)/Fleet.htm?show=all)
- Turkish Airlines Passenger Opinions (http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/turkish.htm)de:Turkish Airlinesja:トルコ航空
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